Yellow Candles
by cbear375
Summary: Caution- OC It's Yom HaShoah, and Israel is not taking it well. However, some unexpected guests decide to come by and try to keep her company and try to comfort her- some countries, though, that she may not want to see.


Israel was being very quiet. There was a reason, though; Yom HaShoah was in a few days. Yom HaShoah is Jewish day of remembrance for the 6 million Jews that died in the Holocaust. No one liked to talk about it, though. The week surrounding it usually went like this:

Rivkah would sit- alone -in her kitchen all week, not eating, just lighting one Yom HaShoah candle every day and watching it burn. The candles were yellow to symbolize the yellow "Jude" stars the Jews were forced to wear during WWII. She would just sit there and watch it, slowly becoming consumed by the memories that she tried so hard the rest of the year to push out; memories of death, pain, blood, betrayal, and loss of life, heart, and hope. And Rivkah would just sit there, helpless to do anything but cry.

That was how she was going to spend Yom HaShoah this year, too. That is, until there came a knock on her door.

Rivkah wiped her eyes quickly and slowly got out of her chair. Who, she thought, would dare to visit me on this of all fucking days? She opened the door. Standing there under a dark, soon to be stormy sky, was America.

"W-What?" Israel asked, her voice shaky. America took one look at her face- puffy eyes, obvious tear streaks, matted hair, red face -and encompassed her in a huge hug. The Israeli was completely caught off guard, speechless. Then, Alfred spoke.

"I'm sorry." He whispered in her ear. Rivkah burst out crying. She let herself be held and comforted by the larger nation. The nation that had helped her become a country, that had stood up for her (when he was allowed to) when the Palestinian countries were bullying her, and that had saved her people from the concentration camps, albeit Rivkah considering him a little late. (I mean, she knew that he had to fight a ton of German forces to get to each camp, but you can't really blame a girl for wishing her hero would've come sooner.) They slowly sank to the ground.

A good ten to fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the door. Rivkah stood up to open it and wiped her eyes. Standing outside were two people she did not have a desire of seeing: Poland and Lithuania. However, Israel saw what they were holding and bit the side of her hand to try and keep her tears in. They each had lit Yom HaShoah candles in their hands. Poland was obviously crying, and Lithuania had tear streaks on his face. They cared...Rivkah thought to herself. Alfred opened the door for them. Poland burst into tears and ran into Israel's arms, causing both of them to cry even harder at the other's embrace and sink to the ground. Toris nodded at Alfred, saying a nonverbal hello. Al did the same. Rivkah was now crying even harder. She used to hate Feliks for giving up so easily against Germany, but in time she began to understand that he had no choice. His boss had given up, allowing Germany to come right in and beat the living hell out of him.

Alfred and Toris picked Rivkah and Feliks up off the ground and brought them over to Rivkah's kitchen table, where there were now three lit Yom HaShoah candles. They all sat down, Rivkah at the right end, Feliks and Toris on her right and Alfred on her left. After a few moments of silence, Toris gave Alfred a look that politely said "you need to leave." Alfred quietly got up and left, going back to the door in case anyone else decided to show up. He could hear hushed voices and quiet, choked sobs. From who, though, was unknown. About ten minutes later, there was another knock. Rivkah sped up to the door to see who it was as Alfred opened it.

There were Austria and Hungary, each holding a Yom HaShoah candle. Austria looked very weak, and Hungary's hair was slightly frizzed due to the light rain coming down. It was obvious that they both had been crying. Alfred let them in and took their candles. The two stepped in and hugged Rivkah. Roderich was shaking, and Elizaveta looked as though she was never going to let go of the young country. Rivkah just hugged them back, new tears forming and coming down, laughing a little. They let go and went to the table, where there were now five lit Yom HaShoah candles. Elizaveta and Roderich sat on the left of Rivkah, across from Toris and Feliks. Alfred resumed his post at the door. He now heard quiet conversation, tiny sounds of laughter scattered throughout.

Only three minutes later the sound of the door unlocking attracted Alfred's attention. The door opened, revealing a slightly damp Prussia letting himself in. He froze as soon as he saw America staring at him, surprise and a bit of anger prominent in his eyes. Why the hell did Prussia have a key to his (self-proclaimed) little sister's house? Alfred was a bit concerned, but let him pass anyways. He'll beat the former-nation up later. Gilbert nodded in thanks and rushed into the kitchen, catching Israel in a deep, passionate kiss. (Toned down a good bit, however, as Gilbert had no wish to get certain parts of his body chopped off by a certain American.)

When they parted, Prussia hugged Rivkah strongly and whispered something in her ear, sending the girl into a frenzy.

"No! No! I'm not ready! I'm not ready! Please, no!" She rocked back and forth in her chair begging Gilbert, God, anyone that something not be true, that something not happen. Gilbert just held her and kept whispering things in her ear. Alfred, extremely angry at the Prussian for causing his sister such distress at a time like this began to walk towards the scene. He barely got four steps in when there came another knock on the door. The door was unlocked, why didn't they just come in? America thought. With one last glare at a certain Prussian, he turned to the door and opened it.

There, standing in the pouring rain, drenched to the bone, was Germany. America scowled at the country, but took pity on him and let him in out of the freezing sheets of rain. It looked as though his hands were clenched around something, but, then again, they were always clenched into fists.

Gilbert stood up and began to bring Rivkah over to where his brother was. The visiting countries watched in horror as the younger simply freaked out, thrashing this way and that to get out of Prussia's grasp, screaming-

"No! I'm not ready! I'M NOT READY!"

"Nein! Du bist kommen!" Gilbert yelled back at her. After what felt like half an hour, Israel saw Germany.

And screamed and buried her face in Prussia's chest, begging him to make him leave.

Germany was just standing there like a soldier, albeit an extremely tense one. It seemed to America as though with every word Israel spoke the German clenched his fists tighter and tighter. Finally, Prussia had whispered enough Yiddish (at least, America thought it was) to the flustered girl that she stood, shaking, facing the German.

Israel looked terrified.

Now, Alfred had seen his little sister scared, like when the debate over whether or not she was to become a country was going on, but this was a whole 'nuther level. Usually when Rivkah looked at Germany, her eyes filled with hatred, but all Alfred could see was fear. Her face looked the definition of complete and utter horror.

Still looking down, Germany opened his hands, palms up, and showed Rivkah what was inside. Her eyes grew wide and an astonished gasp flew out of her mouth. She paused for a moment, as though thinking over every piece of history she and the German shared, and trying to put the puzzle of him together. She broke from her thoughts abruptly and looked at the country, the man standing before her with a sad understanding.

Rivkah raced over to Ludwig and tackled him into a hug. She threw her arms around his neck, and he snaked his around her waist and pulled her as close to himself as humanly- and inhumanly, you could say -possible. They immediately sank to the ground, Rivkah crying and sobbing buckets and Ludwig crying as though his soul had just been liberated from eternal torture.

Gilbert looked on, tears streaking down his awesome face. He seemed relieved and glad that the tension between his little brother and his girlfriend (Alfred shuddered at the thought of that) had finally been resolved.

Alfred just stared at the sight in wonder, and then a thought occurred- what had Ludwig been holding? He looked down to where the German had dropped the mystery items, and looked at them fondly.

There, scattered on the ground, were around ten fully melted candles, and one perfectly new one standing in the middle of them all.

And they were all yellow.


End file.
